


Grief Is the Price We Pay for Love

by JustAnotherUnderstudy



Series: This Should Totally Be A Thing [13]
Category: James Bond (Craig movies)
Genre: 00M, F/M, Fix-It, Older Woman/Younger Man, eternal love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-04
Updated: 2017-06-04
Packaged: 2018-11-09 00:48:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 687
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11093430
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JustAnotherUnderstudy/pseuds/JustAnotherUnderstudy
Summary: So it’s true, when all is said and done, grief is the price we pay for love. (Saw this on Tumblr)





	Grief Is the Price We Pay for Love

**Author's Note:**

> I watched Wonder Woman yesterday. And I just can't go there yet. And I had to fix myself, and the rest of the cinematic realm. Seriously.

He sits by her bed and wills her to live. Just as he had in the kirk when he held her in his arms and pressed his lips to her forehead.

_Live, so I can tell you what you mean to me._

_Live, so I can finally show you how I feel._

Tanner comes and tries to get him to leave to rest. He assures the man that the chair is just fine.

Moneypenny texts to ask how she is and James ignores her. His mind taunting him as it replays the hotel room. His blood had still been coursing with anger at her. Stupid, stupid anger that now only reminded him of all the time he'd wasted.

Finally, it's Mallory in the room. James had been waiting for it, but he didn't want to see the man.

"She wasn't the only sentimental one."

His statement is quiet and full of all the facts James knows and all the ones Mallory doesn't.

He shakes his head at his newly presumed boss.

"No, I'm the only sentimental one."

Mallory questions him with a look, but James turns away to gaze at her again.

_Live, so you can prove to all of them that you still have more to give._

Once her vitals stabilize, the decision is made to inform her children.

They are surprised to find a disheveled man sitting at their mother's side.

Her son greets him perfunctorily. Her daughter looks at him with eyes like hers and he knows she knows.

_Live, so you can tell me you knew._

There's a hand on his face. The touch is soft. He opens his eyes to the view of sheets. He's fallen asleep with his head on her bed. When he looks up to her face, shegives him that same look he remembers from the Bahamas when she first stole his heart.

_"I knew you'd be you."_

He smiles and tries not to cry, but the feelings he had in the kirk come flooding back and he can't stop. He's making a fool of himself in front of her as he kisses her hand and holds it to his face.

He's blubbering out his apologies and then his declarations of love and need and desire.

~*~00M~*~

It's months before she's recovered and in that time he nearly loses her again to another they'd thought long dead.

He takes her and hides her away, terrified to sleep and wake to discover her gone.

It's a while, but she heals his heart and mind as surely as her body has healed.

James has never felt so whole.

The years pass and the inevitable need to say goodbye comes. He still doesn't think he can breathe without her, but at least this time he's made sure she knows his feelings. He hasn't held them back from her since she woke in the hospital.

In the end, his heart can't handle the loss. It doesn't want to go on. He's older now, in his 70s. He's lived long enough, and without her, there is nothing more to live for.

He falls asleep that night, his fingers caressing the gold band around his left ring finger.

~*~00M~*~

There's a hand on his face. The touch is soft. He opens his eyes to the view of grass. His senses are overloaded with the sweetness of it's scent. He lost his sense of smell and taste when he lost her.

He looks up and finds her staring back at him. Her smile adoring even as she shakes her head in disapproval.

"James, you shouldn't have..."

He cuts her off as he pulls her into a kiss.

"Yes, I should have."

This time he doesn't cry as he offers again his declarations of love and need and desire. He holds her in his arms and they watched the clouds roll by in the sky and James thinks that the death he feared all his life is not nearly as bad as he imagined. It will be as good, even better, than the life he'd lived with her.

Because now there is no price to be paid.


End file.
